Chuck Barrentine has been a resident of Cutler Bay since 1992 and has been married to his wife, Jodie, for 24 years. Their son Brett is entering his senior year at Florida International University.
Barrentine’s background is Retail Asset Protection/Investigations Management and he has held positions such as Asset Protection Manager, Corporate Investigator, District Loss Prevention Manager, and Regional Loss Prevention Manager with well known national companies during his 30-year career.
He is a Florida state-licensed investigator and holds other state security and firearms licenses as well. Barrentine has five certifications from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the area of Emergency Preparedness and Response and was Mayor John Cosgrove’s Citizen Advisor for Emergency Preparedness.
In 2006, he developed the Town of Cutler Bay’s first Hurricane Preparedness Manual that was distributed to residents. He organized and was the Team Leader for the town’s first Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) for which he received a proclamation.
Barrentine has served on the South Dade Military Affairs Committee which serves the Homestead Air Reserve Base 482nd Fighter Wing and its tenants.
Questions for the candidate:
What prompted you to run for Council Seat 2? Why do you want to serve?
“I am running because I have heard from numerous residents that some members of the town council have forgotten that they work for the residents and not the other way around. I want to serve because there needs to be new ideas for change that we are not currently seeing as a town. Residents are tired of not having their voices heard and not being communicated with on important decisions of their town that affect their quality of life. The town has enough politicians on our council. The town needs someone like me who wants to be a public servant, not another politician. The town needs someone who can bring us back to common sense government and the type of town we desired to live in when we voted to incorporate in 2005. I am that person.”
What do you feel are the most important issues facing the Town of Cutler Bay now and in the months ahead?
“There are many issues that are important but the one I hear most about that will affect us even more in the future is traffic, which is a product of poor growth management and affects our quality of life. Our town’s population has grown 50 percent since incorporation and is now right at 45,000 residents. We have to stop overdevelopment by keeping the zoning restrictions as they are currently written and not continuing to allow developers to change from low density to high density development. We must also take control of the traffic studies that are done as part of the decision-making process for zoning changes and ensure that reliable non-biased traffic study methodology is used and not traffic studies paid for and designed to benefit developers’ agendas.”
What brief statement would you like to make to residents as to why they should vote for you?
“Residents should vote for me because I will represent change. I will bring honor, integrity, and respect back to the council. Most importantly I will listen to the residents and act as their voice not the voice of lobbyist, developers or those with special interest. I will serve the residents and I will bring common sense government back to Cutler Bay by being businesses friendly, demanding government transparency, challenging wasteful spending of our residents’ tax dollars, and ensuring smart growth management. I will be the voice of the residents and I will never forget that I work for them and I humbly ask for their vote on Nov. 8.”
His website is www.Chuck4CutlerBay.com.
— Gary Alan Ruse
I really would like to see less speeding of traffic on my residential street. Mainly school busses but also Fed x and construction traffic.I have worked with DOT and the mayor and local law enforcement. To no avail. I am afraid to take my wheelchair bound child out for a walk as I have personally witnessed reckless driving on my what should be a quiet suburban street. I also would like to take my son to cutler ridge park and not find all the sports parents blocking the handicapped parking or parking on the loading zone to the point where ems could not even enter the parking lot because they would not have anywhere to park or exit. This is an accident waiting to happen and limits where I can go with a medically fragile child.